Articles
Faith and Fear Can’t Co-Exist?
Pastor Resources · Faith And Fear Can faith and fear co-exist? Can we have hope in the midst of fear? Aren’t we, as God’s people, especially in difficult times, to eradicate fear from among us? Easier said than done! While fear is an emotion; faith is a choice. We...
How to be Faithful in the Midst of Fear
We’d all like to say we’re faithful in the midst of fear, but the truth is the COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event. None of us expected the pandemic; neither is this the spring we wanted or planned. Fortunately, God knew about the global tragedy long before we...
“It’s a Relationship, Not a Religion”: The Scientific Truth behind This Common Christian Phrase
Pastor Resources · A Relationship Not A Religion - Wilder Jesus told his followers to “Go . . . make disciples.” (Matthew 28:19). We generally read the passage to say, “Go make believers.” The difference might seem subtle, but the implications are enormous. When...
Bible Revival During the COVID-19 Crisis
Pastor Resources · Bible Revival During The COVID - 19 Crisis As was true after 9/11, the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has people turning back to the Scriptures in droves. Bible sales are significantly up, as are the number of people downloading reading...
Rediscipling The White Church
Pastor Resources · Adaptation Chapter 3 In my experiences with racial reconciliation conversations, there usually comes a moment when superficial talk gets real. Often this comes about because a person of color takes the risk to share how racism and white...
Learning to Read the Bible
Pastor Resources · Learning To Read The Bible When I was young, I had a soccer coach who told me I didn’t know how to run—and that he was going to teach me. His statement made me mad. I actually didn’t like my coach too much; I thought he was kind of overweight for...
An unusual practice to make you into a Godly leader
Pastor Resources · An unusual practice to make you into a Godly leader Four hundred years before Israel ever had a king, God gave Moses a spiritual practice that would transform the life of the king and the people he served. The practice is described in Deuteronomy...
A Deeper Question in the Pandemic
Pastor Resources · A Deeper Question In The Pandemic I dialed into yet another Zoom call. Pastors’ faces filled the screen. The upper left corner said, “So, when are you guys gathering again?” Chatter erupted about state restrictions, social distancing, and...
How To Measure A Church’s Health Without Using Numbers
Pastor Resources · The Healthy Church Log One of the biggest challenges for any church is to figure out how to measure healthfulness. The usual default is to count attendance figures. But the number of church attenders was never the best measure of church...
Financial Decisions Pastors Need to Make During COVID-19 Shutdowns
Pastor Resources · Financial Decisions Pastors Need To Make During COVID - 19 Shutdowns With the novel coronavirus shutting down nearly every church in the country, pastors are facing difficult financial challenges. Congregants may be giving less during this...
Left Behind by a Prodigal Child
Pastor Resources · Left Behond By A Prodigal Child There has been much written about the exodus of Millennials from the church. But I haven’t seen much discussion about the effect of that exodus on those they’ve left behind; specifically, the parents who sought to...
10 ways to bond as a family
Pastor Resources · 10 Ways To Bond As A Family None of us really expected that we would be indoors together, not really having human contact with other people and it can be really hard, for so many reasons. It’s easy to go to social media and vent about how...
Christian Educators, We Are Called to Such a Time as This
Pastor Resources · Christian Educators, We Are Called to Such a Time as This With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world as we know it has turned upside down in just a matter of weeks, leaving educators across the country scrambling to provide content and...
Pastoring During COVID-19:
Pastor Resources · Pastoring Durring Covid - 19 COVID-19 burst onto the global scene out of nowhere. Well, not out of nowhere. However, in terms of the things you expected to experience in 2020, yes, it figuratively burst onto the scene out of nowhere. Then within...
More Than Maintenance: Four Essential Characteristics Of A Healthy Church Culture
Pastor Resources · Four Essential Characteristics Of A Healthy Church Culture What are the characteristics of a church with a healthy culture? Let’s look at four of them. First, the people in a healthy culture know the church doesn’t exist for its own self but for...
When Narcissism Comes to Church
Pastor Resources · Pastor Resources - Narcissism The beloved priest-psychologist Henri Nouwen wasn’t trying to define narcissism, but he might as well have been, when he wrote: The long painful history of the Church is the history of people ever and again tempted to...
Loving God with Our Minds: How the Brain Forms Character and Habits of Faith
Habits are patterns that have been practiced so many times that they develop high-speed connections in the brain—up to 200 times faster than connections forged through normal thinking. Habits of faith improve character and have three requirements: (1) practice, (2)...
The Gospel
Pastor Resources · The Gospel The word Gospel occurs multiple times throughout the New Testament. It’s first appearance is in Matthew chapter 4 and it’s last is in Revelation chapter 14 and most of the books in between use this phrase. Paul uses it more than...
Appreciating nature in your backyard
Pastor Resources · Appreciating Nature - Appreciating Nature I wanted to take a few moments to share with you how nature and creation has been really significant to us and to our family in these last few days. Like you, our lives have been turned upside down in...
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Pastor Resources · Can't We All Just Get Along “Can’t we all just get along?” became a popular saying after Rodney King uttered this question during riots in Los Angeles in 1992. Many would think these words are not needed in churches either because we have all...
